Apparently all has gone off, and Sarah has, as of today, acquired my new computer. I can't believe how darned expensive it was. I think I shall make it a point not to buy a Dell again, on general principle. On the other hand, we'll see if the new computer can survive the beating I give it for any period of time. The funny thing is, there's no reason to replace a computer, really, unless you play a lot of brand-new games, or a new operating system is released. I certainly would have been happy to wait. Oh well. My next goal is to see if I can at some point track down a replacement hard drive so the Dell isn't a complete waste of space. Two years! It only lasted two years! OK - I'm fine now.

What made yours so expensive? Was there a particular add-on that you requested that boosted the price? My current computer is five or six years old, so it's time for me to get a new one. Students at BG can supposedly get discounts on Dells, so I may yet go that route.

The screen. I wanted a good screen (my Dell had their super amazing screen as well, and when I bought it the screen alone added $300 to the price). And since I bought it at a retail outlet, the screen was only available on a fairly high-end computer. Oh well - not I get to see if the Hyper-Threading actually works on intel processors.

Other than the screen, I would say you can get a perfectly good laptop for $700-ish. It's not like you need all that extra processor they give you these days!